Finance & Arbitration

With a track record going back over 160 years, Carter Jonas is a trusted partner to many land and property owners. We have finance specialists and legal experts who can advise clients on many complex issues, from taxation and the management of accounts to arbitration and mediation.

We’ve come a long way since we were established in 1855. Today, we adopt cutting-edge technology alongside tried and tested practices to deliver the highest standards of professional service and reliable, independent advice.

Financial Specialists

Carter Jonas’s specialists can help you with a range of property-related financial matters, such as inheritance planning, taxation, receivership, payroll, single farm payments and the management of accounts.

We are the leading agent for the Agricultural Mortgage Corporation (AMC), which provides specialist funding for agricultural and rural businesses. As such, we are one of the largest single sources of rural and farm finance in the UK. We can guide you through the application process, making sure that your particular requirements are considered and prioritised.

Legal Experts

Our local knowledge and our experience of dealing with a vast array of property means that we are well placed to act as arbitrators, mediators or expert witnesses on many issues requiring legal advice.

As arbitrators and mediators we spend our professional lives dealing with property matters, and we experience at first hand many different situations involving clients. This gives us the knowledge required to speak with authority and diplomacy and to help focus negotiations in an objective way. As a result, both parties have the knowledge and comfort that a third party can help if a settlement cannot be reached.

We can lead the discussion to a quick and fair resolution.

We can advise on

Inheritance Planning

Inheritance Tax (IHT) planning is familiar to many in the agricultural and rural communities. The rules, however, are complex and need specialist advice to be implemented in such a way as to minimise inheritance tax paid. Despite this, there are still many people who fail to make a will and, when they die, they leave many complications to those left behind. Within farming especially, it’s important that proper plans are made with regards to inheritance planning, and professional advice from your lawyer, accountant and surveyor is vital. It is never too late to make arrangements, so if you would like to discuss your situation in confidence, please do get in touch.

Payroll

Our computerised payroll system speeds up the calculation of employees’ pay and automatically produces year-end returns for clients. Not only does this take a laborious process off your hands, it ensures that you benefit from the financial incentives offered by HMRC for the prompt submission of returns using this method. And no matter how regularly you pay your staff – whether it’s weekly, monthly or more ad hoc – our flexible service will take care of it.

Taxation Advice

Tax planning is a complex area. Constant changes to legislation mean that keeping your plan under review is important to ensure that your assets are retained and not given away to pay tax unnecessarily.

With our experience in guiding our clients through the tax planning process, we have helped families successfully manage the handover of assets to the next generation. We have seen the bigger picture unfold on many occasions and can advise both on capital values and on the practical side of implementing plans for the future, working with accountants and solicitors as part and parcel of the process.

Tax planning should not be ruled by the amount of tax that is paid; there are other considerations just as important to take into account. We share our experiences with clients to help them benefit from the very latest advice and innovative ideas on how to best plan for the future.

VAT

VAT can be extremely complicated. Our services range from assessing an estate for VAT recovery to registration and completion of VAT returns. Not only will we take the whole process off your hands, we will also make sure that as much VAT is recoverable from your property as possible.

Caroline is a qualified chartered accountant having joined the firm from a regional firm of Chartered Accountants where she was employed as an auditor. Caroline is responsible for managing private clients’ accounts held by Carter Jonas. As part of this function she prepares annual estate accounts for submission to the clients’ tax advisors, prepares monthly management accounts and undertakes all aspects of cash management. Outside of work, Caroline enjoy tennis, running, snowboarding and any other outdoor activity as well as cooking and gardening.

Steven is a Partner based in our Rural Team in Oxford and is head of Rural Valuation for the firm. He advises private and institutional clients on a diverse range of rural asset valuations for all purposes. In addition, he is a Member of the AMC Valuation Panel. He is regularly involved in dispute resolution and is on the RICS panel of Expert Witnesses and is one of only a few rural practice chartered surveyors qualified as an accredited mediator. He has been an external examiner at the Royal Agricultural University and is a published author on the subject of expert witness work. In his spare time, Steven enjoys mountainous ridge walks and riding his motorbike.

Clare undertakes valuation work with inspection of all property types, predominantly commercial and development, and provision of valuation reports for a wide variety of purposes to a diverse client base. She specialises in the completion of development appraisals, working with the public sector and private developers to model scenarios and provide a financial analysis of sites to establish economic viability and financial surplus to enable calculation of affordable housing provision and appropriate s. 106 contributions. Clare is also a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators and a practising arbitrator and independent expert.